I'll give you three reasons.
- It wants to change our excellent system of government – one of our most precious assets – for something inherently unstable to satisfy the fantasies of a couple of politicians. We don't want to do this as it would open a can of constitutional worms. Our Westminsterian system of government has enabled four smooth changes of government since 1968. This has allowed us to forge ahead at a healthy pace until 2005. And established our reputation as a vibrant democracy.
- It wants to make all kinds of dangerous changes to our electoral system on the basis of a very weak report which has been demonstrated to be flawed beyond repair. That includes party lists which shift the loyalty of MPs from voters to their leaders. And double candidacies which are a recipe to make arrogant politicians unaccountable.
- Sithanen has been chosen as its Minister of Finance. His regressive 'reforms' which began in 2005 have thrown 22,000 Mauritians into poverty – that's 17% of all poor people – and thousands more into a 9-year L-shaped recession. And he has proved to us that he doesn't understand at least two things: how the economy works and percentages. That's a pretty big skills mismatch.
This alliance will never win a 60-0. Far from it. The political exhumation of the toxic bean-counter will not exactly help. But we will have to vote very wisely – for example Lalit is good, Rezistans not really and abstaining bad – and send a very clear and loud message that we don't want any of this nonsense.
We are waiting for RS in Quatre-Bornes.
ReplyDelete@ Anonymous of September 26, 2014 at 5:08 PM:
ReplyDeleteSorry for you, but he's going to No.13 or No.20.
And until Nomination Day, you can bet that this is subject to change very quickly without notice.
Very depressing to see that Ramgoolam has brought back Sithanen after sacking him for all the misery he inflicted on the population. Very depressing that promising people like Nita Deerpalsing, Steve Obeegadoo, Kavi Ramano, Satish Boolell and a few others voted for such an alliance and have not spoken their minds as they usually do. We don't have a lot of choice but to vote for the little parties.
ReplyDelete45 sieges pas sire zotte pour gagner. Ti pour pli bon zot gagn 32-33 sieges avec nou ena ene gros l'opposition.
ReplyDeleteTout sauf sa boug la.
ReplyDeleteI paid a lot of money on my
ReplyDeletesavings because of this figir who then used it to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. There are many people like me all over the country. He will find out no matter where he is a candidate.
Strange that we haven't heard Cassam Uteem on the very anti-democratic things that the Labour/MMM alliance intends of doing if ever it gets the required majority.
ReplyDeleteHave a look at this interview of Manoj Gokhool who is the Chairman of the International Centre for Electoral Psychology. He lists some of the shortcomings of the Sithanen Electoral Galimatia (SEG) and stresses the importance of having the population vote in a referendum on modifications of the electoral architecture.
ReplyDeleteThe message sent was quite loud and very clear.
ReplyDeleteSitwayin X is another voice who recommended we vote for small parties. Obviously Lepep didn't deserve more than 35 seats so we should have helped a bit more to get some of these seats to people like Lindsey Collen and Alain Ah-Vee from Lalit and Jack Bizlall. These three would have made a difference in Parliament. I would not have recommended Ashock Subron because he was in favour of double candidacies although he told me privately that he wasn't. Also hammering day and night that our constitution has institutionalised communalism and that therefore we need another constitution does not make him very credible.
ReplyDeleteLet's come up with a list of good candidates that we think -- saying why we pick them -- should be in Parliament and then we give them our blessing. We should also come with a list of people that shouldn't go in like Sithanen, Collendavelloo, Soodhun, Ramgoolam and Berenger. This should help our democracy.
Good candidates mean that, whatever the effect on themselves, they are ready to put in all efforts to keep Mauritius in zone 1 or 2 of the (hardest part of) the policy matrix. As long as we have bright youngsters who, despite being fully knowlegeable in their fields, have to keep eking out a living off their meagre salary, with even more meagre scope for saving, and often slaves to their housing loans, they'll keep shunning politics because it remains a threat to their livelihoods. But how to unroot this kind of 'reasoning' that some technocrats should have free access without sanction? No, the root of democracy is to be answerable to the people at all times.
ReplyDeleteLindsey ek Jack bann zenes sa. Trant an zot pankor gayne sa ;)
ReplyDelete